Seasons to come

Above: Models Urvashi Sharma with sister Sucheta (right) and Neha Kapoor (middle) at the Elite calendar launch; Bottom: artists Vasundhara Broota (extreme right), Satish Gujral and Rameshwar Broota, with Kiran Gujral

You’ve raised several toasts to the New Year and now it’s time to keep tabs on the days as they go by — and with some delicious wall art in place. Yes, it’s that time of the year when some of the fanciest calendars get unveiled at glittering events. The latest to declare itself is the Elite Model Management’s Elite Calendar 2007. As might be expected, Mumbai’s Olive Bar & Kitchen came alive with the glam brigade as models, designers and fashion photographers came to applaud Elite on its second calendar.

Since Elite’s anthem this time round is Essence of the Seasons, each month has a different take on the passage of time. You can expect the visions to suggest attraction, temptation, lust, desire, enticement and seduction. So models Yashmin and Hrishant Goswami embody the essence of attraction in January while Sanya Sheikh and Bharat Arora typify enticement in August. Sucheta Sharma and Ignatius Camilo wrap up December with the essence of charm. The other Elite models who will peep out at you from the calendar through the year include Diana Penty, Freida Pinto, Vibhinta Verma, Vaishali Ramaswamy, Vipasha Agarwal and Miss India Neha Kapur.

And you believe Sushma Puri, director & CEO of Elite Model Management India, when she says that the calendar showcases the best talent of the agency. Photographed by ace shutterbug, Vishesh Verma, and styled by designer Wendell Rodricks, the calendar’s graphic design has been executed by the New York-based David Schorr. The team has kept the images stark yet colourful while the models look larger-than-life.

At the unveiling, Puri’s calendar team was out in full force while the flag for P3Ps was kept flying by model-VJ Nina Manuel, designer Suneet Verma and actresses Koel Puri, Mona Singh and Pooja Bedi. Also spotted were adman Prahlad Kakkar and Elite models Sunny Gill, Aryan and Bharat Arora. Time to get yourself a new calendar.

Brush with reality

After a gap of three years — and a very successful group showing in Los Angeles last year — artist Vasundhara Tewari Broota is treating her fans to a solo exhibition in Delhi. The Vadehra Art Gallery is hosting her body of work that includes 19 paintings in acrylic and oil on canvas. The show opened with the gallery being deluged by a stream of visitors including artists Satish Gujral accompanied by wife Kiran, Paramjeet Singh as well as curators Ina Puri and Alka Pande.

Much inspired by her theme — Woman Speak/Child Song — Broota’s paintings are dominated by the image of children. “Each canvas explores the vulnerability and resilience of the child,” says Broota. The artist has also peopled her canvasses with images of endangered species such as the oryx and the vulture to express the precariousness of ecology.

Vasundhara’s husband, artist Rameshwar Broota, commented on the visual aspects that have moved him more than intellectual interpretations. “The works show the threatened figure of the girl child as she is placed in close proximity to the endangered species,” he said.

Art critic Gayatri Sinha had another take on Broota’s works. “They tease and tug at the question of the child as the first sign of the continuum of the female presence. The child’s solitary state and the absence of the mother/guide not only offers a comment on the state of the childhood, but anticipates the isolation of the female condition,” she commented.